Wrestling: Oak Park-River Forest dominates own tourney

Updated: January 21, 2012 11:44PM

It had been five years since Oak Park-River Forest won its annual tournament, so Saturday’s dominant team title win was particularly sweet.

The host Huskies sent a parade of nine wrestlers to the title mat to put the tournament out of reach before the finals even began.

“Hard work,” OPRF’s Davonte Mahomes said. “That’s what we count on. It’s been a while since we won this tournament but we worked hard today. Everybody’s banged up this time of year but we’re fighting through it.”

The Huskies sent nine wrestlers to the title mat and held a 73-point team lead heading into the finals, en route to a 259.5-185 win over second-place Lyons. Oswego was third and Minooka placed fourth.

Winning titles for OPRF were Mahomes (152), Matt Rundell (106), Larry Early (120), Colin Rogers (138) and Sam Brooks (182).

“We didn’t wrestle the finals as well as we could have but we looked good today,” OPRF coach Mike Powell said. “And Colin (Rogers) and Larry (Early) beat a pair of Wisconsin state champs today.”

Wisconsin teams from Arrowhead and Fort Zumwalt West also competed in the 10-team tournament.

Hersey’s Conrad Bugay reached the title mat for his third time this year, having previously placed second at both the Dvorak and Palatine tournaments. Bugay used a takedown with only 11 seconds left in the title match at 132 to win a 5-4 decision over OPRF’s Cameron Harris.

“It’s nice not to be a bridesmaid again,” Bugay said. “(Harris) took me down first but I almost took him down a few times early in the match. I wasn’t too worried.”

Other area wrestlers winning titles were Minooka’s Corbett Oughton (145) and Jake Residori (170), Hersey’s Hunter Rollins (160), Morton’s Eddie Rodriguez, and Oswego’s Luis Flores (285).

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